Ice Hockey Women's World Championships 2019

From 4 to 14 April in Espoo (Finland), the Women's Ice Hockey World Cup in 2019 celebrated its 20th anniversary. Gold, according to the established tradition, for the sixth time in a row went to the United States, but a very unexpected rotation occurred below the list. However, first things first.

The first Women's World Cup under the auspices of the International Ice Hockey Federation took place in the spring of 1987 in Ontario (Canada). Then seven teams fought for the title of the best. Up until 2005, primacy was always for the Canadians in the championship, but afterwards, they gradually began to be forced out by the United States. In 2013, USA finally firmly settled on the first step of the podium, where they are to this day. Bronze in the World Ice Hockey Championship among women 12 times out of 19 took the Finnish national team. Russians in the medal table have long been in fourth place, albeit with only three bronze medals.

Canada - Finland 6:1, photo © iihf.com

At first, the championship was held once every two years, then it was interrupted by the Pacific Cup, then by an atypical pneumonia epidemic in the Beijing ... And only in 2003 did the competition regulations take on a modern look. Now the tournament is held annually, except for those years when the Winter Olympic Games are held.

The Women's World Hockey Championship 2019 presented surprises to both fans and athletes. 10 teams took part in the games - seven European, two from North America and one from Asia. The favorites have traditionally been decided since the first matches - it immediately became clear that the fight, as always, will unfold between the USA, Canada and Finland.

However, the results were unexpected. Previously the laurels of the winner were given to the Finnish national team! News websites even managed to announce a breakthrough unprecedented in the history of competitions. However, the Finnish happiness was not long ... The arbitrators, after reviewing overtime records, canceled the puck of Petra Nieminen, and the gold with a series of shootouts still pulled out the hockey players from the USA - 2: 1. And in the fight for the bronze a little earlier, the Canadians tore to the Russian team - 7: 0.

USA - Finland 2: 1, photo © iihf.com

Completed competitions have become the third, which hold the Finns, but very special at once on several points. First, for the host team, this is an unprecedented takeoff. Previously, the Finns have never risen above third place in the standings. Secondly, before that, no one ever broke through either the first or the second step of the podium of honor. The Women's World Cup 2019 was the first time when silver didn't go to North America - for almost 30 years of history, it has always ended with a confrontation between Canada and the United States. Thirdly, the Canadian national team for the first time “grabbed” the bronze ... No one expected this turn of events.

As for Russian team, they went to the Women's World Hockey Championship 2019 in good spirits ... But, unfortunately, it showed a mediocre, if not to say devastating result. First, the Russians missed eight goals from American in the semifinals, without scoring any of them. And then, similarly, they “forgave” seven goals of the Canadians in the match for the third place. For the sake of justice, it is worth noting that resisting under the pressure of a multiple champion who risked for the first time to collapse from the podium was really difficult.

Russia - Canada 0: 7, photo © iihf.com

“The season was hard. There were a lot of games in the championship, and recently there were the Universiade, in which we took gold ... But the World Cup level is much higher, and it’s very difficult to get a team to the peak twice in one month”, said A. Chistyakov, coach of the Russian national team.

Victoria Romanova, Russia, Moscow

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